what getting BUSTED for growing really looks like

Hey guys, well i know a lot of people are curious about this in one fashion or another so i'll give you my experience with getting busted for growing. I live in florida, which I would say has pretty mainstream/ harsh laws compared to other states in the union, but it's definetly a state that leaves you for some wiggle room providing you have decent representation and no priors

I'll take you back to febuary of this year 2010, at the time i had been growing for only about 6 months, had two nice harvests and was working on my third crop.

i had a small 6x6 grow area with a single 600w hps, i was doing well "flying under the radar"

this is completely my fault, as i did a small petty theft crime out of stupidity one night.. i don't wish to get into the details of that charge..but i was stupid and it came back to bite me.. not only have i never been charged with a crime before, i am more or less a law abiding citizen (aside from weed) and had never been to jail or cross paths with law enforcement outside of a traffic violation ( i'm 29 years old FYI)

so 2 weeks go by and all of a sudden i get a knock on my door at about 6pm on a friday evening, looking out the window i see 2 plain clothed people I didn't know and still answered the door, in retrospect i shouldn't have done this.. but it was obvious someone was home.. my lights were on, had the music thumpin.. i'm sure the problem wouldnt have just gone away.. eventually they would have gotten an arrest warrant, search warrant etc.

i open the door, i had been smoking with a nice aroma in the house and the two people identify themselves as police and say " we don't care if you're smoking weed, we want to question you about this incident, blah blah.. when i denied any involvement this is when they started to get upset and all of a sudden do care about the weed i have in my house.. they enter without a warrant and begin to ask me where my weed is. they probably thought i had just a small stash i was smoking but at this point they want to arrest me for any reason.

once they force themselves in, which wasnt hard to do, it was 2 cops vs. me and i was stoned and feeling good, they told me to sit down and shut up and proceeded to ask me where my weed was, on the report they said upon opening the door marijuana was in plain view. the truth is they searched all through my drawers and cupboards until they found what they were looking for and tossed it on top of the counter.

my grow area was in a walk in closet attached to my bedroom at the back of the apartment, at the time i had just recently harvested, had about 6oz's dried and 18 plants growing (9veg and 9flowering)

i gotta say my carbon scrubber worked well b/c they had no idea i was growing in the apartment until they physically walked into the grow area. i was arrested that night and charged with 2 felony counts, one was possesion of 20+ grams and the other was manufacturing/sale under 25plants. according to law these are both crimes punishable up to 5 years in prison.

so i spent a night in jail, bonded out the next morning, came home discovered my grow area dismantled/trashed. in all i lost the 6oz, 18 plants, my 600w and fan/filter was gone.. they did leave me my autocloner and fluroscent t5 veg light LOL

i hired an attorney for $5,000 who pretty much guaranteed me he would get me no jail time. it took about 6 months to go through the legal process which was arraingment, followed by another court date and another, where he ask for a continuance and finally another court date each of which were about 2 months apart.

initially for the 2 felonies punishable by up to 10 years combined(max penalty) the states attorney was asking for 1 year hard time state prison. the state settled for 1 year probation, 100 hours community service and a "marijuana substance abuse class"
once i complete the conditions of the probation the charge will be "nolle pross" essentially not convicted as a felon.. which is a big deal


this was all thanks to a good attorney, and no priors, im sure with no representation or a pubic defender, i would have done some time, 1-6 months and been a convicted felon.

one last thing to add, be sure to check the NORML laws in your state, in florida over 25 plants or 25lbs is considered TRAFFICKING.. which is not a charge where you would get a slap on the wrist such as what i recieved.. know your laws.. if i had just 6 more plants i would have been looking at 3 years mandatory minimum penalty.. of which i would have had to serve atleast a year in state pen and probably end up a convicted felon.

i'm pretty happy, with the outcome.. i learned a lot about the legal process and i'm taking a small break from growing as to not violate the terms of my probation. i'm very happy to have my freedom, to eat what i want to eat and go where i want to go (within this state, LOL) i love growing and miss my plants, but once i take care of this i will join you once again. good luck and see ya on the other side.

 

some stuff from work, my boss was treating me like shit and in a moment of weakness i developed the "i'll show you" attitude. i was only a suspect and questioned by him at work.. after denying it and just getting tired of being there i quit. there was no proof of this crime and i thought that was the end of it, but i guess he called the cops and eventually they came to my house.

what i learned from this was, don't steal shit from your job if you are growing weed at your crib, even if your boss is a douchebag.

again probably common sense, but it felt ok at the time.

 

no there wasn't one.. but according to my attorney, if the cops say you let them in, and you don't have proof otherwise.. it is your word against theirs and you aren't gonna win that.

basically the only way to fight that and win is if you have a camera system with audio in your house. then i could have used that as evidence against them to have the search and seizure thrown out.

without it its the cops word in court, at this point is when my attorney explained to me the best thing possible to do is to make a deal such as the one he made b/c as soon as you start to fight.. you signal to the courts that you are interested in trial... when you go to trial and lose they aren't nearly as lenient in sentencing.. my judge was well known for giving the max ammount.. meaning if i won, i avoid the 1 year probabtion, if i lose though i was subjecting myself to a possible 10 year jail sentence. doesnt exactly make sense to fight it even on principle alone when they have that kinda time on you.

 

1 year probation.. so i'm going to wait it out. if i did get popped again while on probation, i'd have a lot of shit to deal with, not only the new charge, but my probation would be revoked.. i'd probably do a minimum of 1 year in jail and become a convicted felon..